It has been another interesting week for the cryptocurrency community. Litecoin is coming closer to activating SegWit, which, if successful, could act as a powerful use case for a potential SegWit soft fork for bitcoin in the near future. Stellar has also expanded its footprint and galvanized its place in the world of blockchain, pioneering a way to pay coffee farmers fairly and in real-time.

The price of bitcoin continued to rally at the start of the week before dropping from $1229 down to $1141 as bitcoin bears took over the momentum for the remainder of the week. However, those shorting the cryptocurrency are left exposed to a sudden upsurge shown by Bitfinex’s margin traders’ open short interest exceeding the long interest and exemplified by the attempt at $1200 on April 17.

SegWit is on the verge of a breakthrough to activation on Litecoin. Chief developer Charlie Lee announced to push it through with an UASF if push comes to shove. However, it seems that this will not be necessary after not only F2Pool but also BW.com started to signal readiness.

Lee’s commitment to an UASF raised enthusiasm both in the Litecoin as in the Bitcoin community. While the Bitcoin community also started to promote UASF and the first companies show a willingness to participate, it seems that Litecoin will not need to become Bitcoin’s test field for an experimental soft fork activation.

Currently, over 80 percent of Litecoin blocks signaling support for SegWit in the current activation period, so an activation will happen soon.

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